Korea: Disaster Before Leaving on Our Trip

While preparing for our trip to Korea, normal inconveniences have happened, like a pedicure of bright orange polish instead of an inconspicuous color, but I never expected more than that. Maybe I should have.

Weekend before we leave, Bill wants to visit his parents in Texas, so he flies us down Saturday. While fueling to come back, another pilot said he saw a snake go up into our plane. I don’t know what I would have done if a snake had appeared in flight. Ma said, “Just don’t jump out – hit it with something.” Bill said, “Ignore it.”  I’m more likely to have climbed into the back seat or Bill’s lap which probably wouldn’t have worked out well with me screaming 10,000 feet above ground.

Here’s what happened when we got home. Three months ago, I decided to put hardwood floor in my home office. Thought about it for years and finally decided to go ahead. Took weeks to choose the color, wood, etc, another few weeks to get the order, then pick it up and wait for an install date. No one called, so I traipsed down to the store and inquired. They assured me it would take only a day to install so I agreed on a date three days before we get on a plane to go halfway around the world for our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Korea. Not too smart, huh? I had a bad feeling about this and almost canceled, but Bill thinks women’s intuition is fairy tales.  I told myself, erroneously, that we could move the furniture back the next day and be done with the project.

So Sunday night when we got back from Texas, my can-do man, with Jason’s help, moved desks, bookshelves, chairs and the cedar chest to the living and dining room, making one big obstacle course. And no, I don’t have a picture. I can’t locate my camera. My projects always end up larger than expected. The baseboards had to be removed and they look so bad that we will have to sand and re-stain or buy new ones, which must be done before we can move back in. Another big job.

I hate to admit this, but behind the six-foot book shelf was a white space on the wall where we failed to paint when we painted the room.  One of those short-cut things. So I searched the garage for the leftover paint. Bill bet me it was the wrong color. It matched, so I painted the spot, plus touched up nicks and spots along several other walls. Very proud of myself, even if I did get paint all over my newly-manicured fingers. The paint dried. It dried the wrong color. Which means, of course, my whole office, entry way, and at least five other walls will have to be repainted. Guess I owe Bill $10.

Bill has a business trip and must leave in the morning. Won’t see him for two weeks. Now my daughter plans to clean her house and buy groceries for her family before we leave, and probably write sweet little notes for them, but I leave my family with a disaster. Right now, the machines are whirring, drowning out their blaring country music; I can hardly hear, floor is torn up and tools are scattered everywhere.  I just hope I can shove in enough clothes in my suitcase to survive in Korea – and hope the installers haven’t moved in by then. Maybe I do need your prayers.

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• Our Trip to Korea (kathrynspurgeon.wordpress.com)
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